Whelan Web Design Blog

What Clients Say

1. Automatic VideosWe would advise not to have your videos set to automatically play when a user visits your website or a particular webpage. This is because users are given no warning that this will happen, nor are they even given an option to accept or reject the video from playing. If the user is out in public (such as in a library) or on public transport and your video starts playing, they are highly likely to simply close your website completely to stop the noise of the video and also to keep their browsing habits private to those around them.

2. Muted Automatic VideosHowever following on from the point above, you could set your video content to autoplay once it is set to play in mute without any sounds at all. With this, you can still display and show your video content to your website visitors without invading their listening space. You still have to remember that with this, anybody physically near the users can still bear witness to what website that they are on. So it is up to you if you want to risk your visitors from bouncing due to privacy reasons.

3. YouTube Suggestions and Recommended VideosIf you are embedding a YouTube video into your website, you need to be careful to not inadvertently advertise your competitors in the process. This can come about when the video ends and YouTube displays a selection of similar videos for the user to go on and watch – a selection similar to the subject matter of the video you embedded, therefore opening up the potential for competitors to populate this list. Before embedding, remove this feature via YouTube as follows: under the video in YouTube, click on ‘Share’ ---> ‘Embed’ ---> ‘Show More’ under the code ---> untick ‘Show Suggested Videos'. After these steps, copy the new updated embed code into your website to display the video.

Video content is popular, but with this popularity comes pitfalls. Consider the pointers in this blog as a guide to getting the best from video content without the downfall via methods that also enhance the user experience, deter bounces and keep the competition at bay. For a custom built website that knows how to implement all types of optimised content correctly, contact the team at Whelan Web Design today.